


Flowers In the Dark

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [53]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Other, aftermath of suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-31
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 13:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/824960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He lost one, and could not save the other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lost

**Author's Note:**

> White Rose - a Harry Potter AU where Severus Snape, Lily Evans, Regulus Black, and Hepzebah Morgan (see the OC list) form a group while at Hogwarts with the intention of taking over/changing the world. Lily still dies, but some children don't have the parents everyone assumes, and later events don't happen as in canon - most notably, Harry isn't raised by the Dursleys.

She was darkness to Lily's light, sharp edges acid-etched that cut him deep. Blood soaked cruelty made to destroy and to break, to fight that which could not be fought any other way. A darkness that loved and needed that brightness that was Lily, that was diminished by the loss of her. Survived, but never again thrived.

Darkness and light, best of his friends, complementing each other, and best together. He lost one, and could not save the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "dark".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Not Always the Absence of Light](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/951873).


	2. The House Of Black

In the days after the defeat of Voldemort at the hands of the fifteen-month-old Harry Potter, many things happened in the wizarding world. The Longbottoms were tortured to insanity, Sirius Black was put into Azkaban for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles, Harry Potter was put into the care of his Muggle relatives, Bellatrix Lestrange and three others were arrested for the torture of the Longbottoms.

Time passed, a month, two, and into the new year. The world settled.

In February, the Daily Prophet blazed a headline that made the chill and dark of winter seem just that little bit worse.

**SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES AZKABAN!**

What they didn't report was the disappearance of two tiny boys from a Muggle house two nights before, or the death of the adults in the household. They didn't report the emptying of the Black and Potter vaults, or the two men who boarded a plane at Heathrow, each with a son in tow - cousins who clung to each other and were cooed over because they were so precious.

No one searched outside of Britain for Sirius Black, because they never expected him to leave the country. No one looked for Harry Potter or Dudley Dursley, because they didn't know they were missing. No one even looked at number 4 Privet Drive, they just forgot it was even there.

And in a little village in the south of France, two brothers settled into a nice house, with two boys - one the son of the younger, the other a maternal cousin of that son. Their neighbors commiserated about the death of the boys' mothers, supported the two young men because they were such good boys, to take the responsibility for such small children without a mother for them.

No one thought to look there for Harry Potter or Sirius Black, and there were no reporting of those two living there, because they were never called that. Oh, Harry was Henri, but he was Black, and Sirius was Black, but he was Conor. And the cousin was Dudley, but he was called Potter, and the younger brother was Black, but Apollon rather than Regulus.

So no one looked, and no one found, until it was time for Harry to go to Hogwarts, and then the owls looked and looked, and found only after a long and exhausting flight. And they found Dudley Dursley, who adored and loved his cousin without reserve, and Sirius Black who had grown up and settled somewhat, and Regulus Black who was supposed to be dead, and was instead alive and alone save for the boy he called son and the boy he called nephew and the brother he had risked life and soul to rescue from a fate he did not earn.

What happened next is a story for another time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Missing".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [All of a Question](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1680257).


	3. Could Not Save the Other

The sky is overcast when he Apparates to the cottage they four had bought after Hogwarts, before everything had gone to hell, and their plans had been warped by death. It's entirely too still, and Severus opens the door with a sinking feeling that is justified when he sees the quiet body on the lounge. No blood, no marks, not even an empty vial of poison to make it easy to tell how she'd died. Just a pale, still, cold corpse.

He closes his eyes, leaning against the doorframe. Two dead, now, and Regulus long gone out of reach for the safety of the boys in his care. Leaving Severus to hold the line in Britain, alone, and watching for those who might have the chance at being the next generation of their plans. There will be Harry, of course, and Theodore - Severus doesn't imagine for a minute that Alexander will be able to deal with raising the boy on his own - but who else? Who to take on the cloak of the two dead, of the bright flame and the shadow it cast?

After another moment, he moved, crossing the room to carefully scoop up Hepzebah's body, which felt entirely too light. He'll take her home, and leave her in her bed there for her husband to find. And then he will begin his solitary watch, until the next generation is ready to take on the mantle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Cloud".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Storms and Sunsets](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1848918).

**Author's Note:**

> **OCs for this story/AU:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Hepzebah Morgan - a Ravenclaw a year behind Severus Snape and Lily Evans, who becomes close friends with them both. She later marries Nott, and has a son Theodore. After Lily's death, she's never quite the same, having lost one of her best friends.


End file.
